How often did I eat apples?
“Tart,” I mumbled over the food, chewing and tasting it. Good, but too tart for me. I loved sweet.
He laughed, taking his own bite, not even caring that my germs were on the apple. “Yeah. The other ones are sweeter. I’ll let you try one when we get there and you can see why those are better freshly picked. These do better sitting in storage longer. It actually tastes better after a month or two in storage. They’re perfect for baking. My dad has a really good applesauce recipe for these.”
“Huh.”
Dayton smiled, and I could see how much respect and love he had for apples and the orchard. People had their obsessions. For me, it was hot chocolate and tulle skirts. For Dayton, it was apple trees.
He took his time as he showed me how to pluck an apple, how to tell if they were good or not, and how to not bruise them. Our main concern was keeping them from getting bruised.
That saying that it only takes one bad apple was true. It’d bruise, then rot, then spread its ickiness to the surrounding apples.
We worked companionably together. Dayton kept up a steady stream of stories, telling me about the trouble he got up to with his sisters and oftentimes with his mother too.
Since he was the baby of the family, when he was younger, his mother would take him with her and sneak off to different spots on the orchard to hide from everyone else. His father had not been amused.
One time she was up in a tree. The next day, the tree had a sign pinned to it saying if she tried to climb the tree again, it was going to be cut down. They were the perfect stories to listen to, of a person in a healthy family, growing up with love and happiness. Sure, they had their problems, but at the end of the day, they were family. I envied Dayton for that. I wanted that too.
We did move on to the other apples, and like he promised, they were so much better. Sweeter. I ate a whole one as we picked away.
“Maddie, you’re too cute,” Dayton said as I tried to smile around a mouthful of a bite.
“Mmm,” was my only response. These apples were too good.
“Be careful,” he said in a warning voice, tone low and sultry. “Keep that up and I’ll want to kiss you silly.”
I practically choked on the apple. Glaring at him, I shoved the apple into a side pocket of the apple harvesting apron I was wearing. “That wasn’t very nice of you,” I said.
He tried to look repentant and failed miserably. “I know. I’m sorry. You were just too cute.”
“You know how I feel about you,” I said.
“Do I?” he asked, tilting his head to the side, trying to act all cutesy.
I narrowed my eyes. “Friends. I’m looking for friends. You can’t flirt like that. You can’t say those things.”
Dayton truly looked solemn, his shoulders slouching as he said, “You’re right, Maddie. I’m sorry. I know you aren’t ready for anything like that and I wasn’t being fair with you. I’ll be more careful.” He did the heart cross movement. “I swear.”
“Okay.” I eyed him, wondering if he’d be careful. Dayton was a carefree kind of man. It’d be easy for him to forget and make it even harder for me not to like him too much.
“How about I make it up to you?” he asked, suddenly happy again.
“How so?”
“We have a private orchard. With the tall trees. We can go there. Pick a couple of apples. I’ll even let you climb the ladder.”
“And you’ll catch me if I fall?”
“Always.”
I thought about it. I really wanted to see a full-size tree. That was on my bucket list too, to climb one and pick apples.
I grinned. “Deal. I’m in.”
“Great. Come on.”
We loaded up our precious cargo and Dayton took us away from all the shortie trees, heading closer to the house. He went around the side and to the back. I eyed their huge inground pool that had already been emptied as we drove past it. There was also a huge patio, with an area set up for barbeques. Dayton kept going, toward the outskirts. We rounded a large shed almost big enough to be a barn and then entered a new world of massive trees.
“We have a couple of different fruit trees here.” Dayton parked the golf cart near a tree that was most definitely more than twenty feet tall. It was massive.
I got out and craned my head back to look up through the branches. I could see the apples precariously hanging there, ready to fall.
“Dad is still working on cleaning it up for the winter. But there are still some apples. I doubt they’re that good right now, since these are best during September and October.” He pointed to a ladder. “Want to see if we can find a good apple?”
I grinned. “I’m game.”
Dayton carefully got the ladder set, and held on as he motioned for me to start climbing.
He didn’t have to ask me twice.
“Don’t look up my skirt,” I warned.
“You’re wearing leggings. I won’t see anything.”
“Oh. Good point. Still. Don’t do it.” I wagged my finger at him.
Dayton’s hand wrapped around mine, and he pushed my warning away from him. “There’s so much frill on your dress that I wouldn’t be able to see anything even if you weren’t wearing leggings.”
Happy with his answer, I got to climbing. Having a ladder as an assistant made the climb a hundred times easier. My arms didn’t have to shake as I tried to pull myself up from branch to branch. And I was even confident I’d be able to get back down easily.
As long as the ladder stayed there. I climbed and climbed, not realizing the ladder was taller than I’d originally thought. It went up into the thick branches of the tree. The remaining apples were within reach and I grabbed one. It came right off.
Something slimy touched my hand and my nose curled in disgust as I turned the fruit around to look.
A slimy, icky, worm.
I wish I could say I was a big girl and acted like an adult.
I wish I could say bugs didn’t bother me.
But then I’d be a big fat liar.
A yelp left me and the surprise of such a gross creature existing was enough for me to drop the apple.
I watched it go down and down. The ladder shook.
“Maddie!” Dayton snapped. “That almost took me out.”
“Sorry,” I called down. “There was a worm.”
“So you scream like a girl and drop it on my head?”
“Not like I did it on purpose,” I grumbled.
“I heard that.”
“Good!”
He made a huffing noise, and I held back a giggle as I climbed a couple more rings, seeing an apple that looked very hopeful. Of course, as soon as I grabbed it, it felt too mushy and not so good.
Ugh.
I looked down, wondering what to do with it. I didn’t want to put it into my apron even though it was empty right now, and I didn’t want to drop it on Dayton’s head.
So instead, I aimed for a spot away from us and gave it a light toss. Dayton didn’t say anything, so I assumed that was okay. As long as his head was safe.
I went up higher, until I was practically to the very top of the ladder. There were still more branches. I was probably only halfway up the tree. I wanted to go higher. The view from there was amazing, so it had to be even better higher up. And I had a feeling the apples higher up would be better. Right? Hopefully.
“Don’t think about it,” Dayton said.
“Thinking, thinking,” I called down. Then I stepped off the ladder and onto a branch. “And now I’m doing it.”
“Maddie, get back on the ladder.”
“I will, after I go higher.”
“Maddie.”
I ignored Dayton and carefully went to the next branch, pulling myself up and making sure to keep my balance.
“Don’t look down. Don’t look down.” I mumbled the mantra over and over again. The last thing I needed was to get a bad case of vertigo and then fall.
Then I’d ne
ver be able to so much be allowed to look at a tree ever again. Dayton… no not Dayton, but Koen, would make sure of it. My gut told me so.
I found the branch I had my eye on. It was thick, unwavering against my weight. It reached outward. I sat on it and finally looked out.
“Holy moly,” I whispered, my eyes widening.
It was absolutely gorgeous up there. I could see the rest of the massive property behind the house. There was a clear tree line where their property must have ended. A fence wrapped around the entire outer edge. The trees were well past the gorgeous bright colors of fall, but they were still pretty, leaves of different colors blanketing the ground, though the common color was more yellows and browns at this point.
“Are you ready to come down?” Dayton asked.
“Are you ready to come up?”
He didn’t reply and I ignored him, too lost in the freedom spread out before me.
“Damn, I haven’t climbed a tree in a while.” Dayton huffed as he came up. The ladder rattled as he climbed.
I grinned and spread my arms. “Welcome to the vast world,” I said.
He chuckled, settling in on the branch but sticking close to the trunk, not willing to tempt the branches with his weight.
“If you fall, Koen is going to murder me, find a voodoo priest to bring me back, and then murder me again.”
“So don’t fall,” I said.
“Yes, don’t fall.”
“This is beautiful,” I whispered, turning back to the scene. The sun was already up, but still low in the sky since it was morning. There was a slight chill to the air, but not uncomfortable.
“Yeah, I’ve always been more partial to hanging out in the trees than doing any real work. I blame my mom though. She’s the same way. If she came by now, I’m sure she’d climb up and join us.”
“Until your dad finds her and yells at her.”
Dayton winced. “Not just her, though. All of us.”
“Me too?” I asked.
“Definitely you too. I doubt you have too much tree climbing experience and that will only make him more scared for you.”
I blinked, trying to process what he’d just said. A stranger scared for me?
“He would be like that?”
“Don’t let his face deceive you. He looks like a grouch, but he worries the most out of anyone in our family. All the traveling Emma does is going to send him into an early heart attack if he doesn’t learn to relax. He’s always worried about her when she’s out of the country.”
“That sounds amazing,” I said.
Dayton snorted. “Having a man call you every day because he wants to make sure you’re still alive isn’t all that fun.”
“But he calls,” I pointed out. “He cares enough to always be checking up on you. That’s so nice. My dad surprised me, swinging by my apartment to talk only recently. But before that, the last time I saw him was at my sister’s funeral. He didn’t say a single word to me. The last time I’d heard his voice was last winter. The twins had asked about their grandparents, and I called to invite them over to meet Lawson and Lee. Of course, nothing came of it.”
“That’s messed up,” Dayton responded after a moment of silence.
I shrugged. “It is what it is.”
“How was it, seeing him again?”
I thought about that, trying to reconcile the man I had met with the one I knew growing up. “Different. Worn down. Exhausted.”
“How was he with the twins?”
Smiling, I said, “Good. He understands kids a lot better than Olivia does.”
“Did she know?”
“I think I’m still waiting for her to call me to yell at me. She’s been trying to set up dinner with them. I’ve been pretending to be too busy.”
“Maddie, with everything going on, that’s only adding fuel to the fire.”
“I don’t care. I won’t let her dictate anything in my life anymore. She doesn’t have that right.”
“What the hell are you doing up there?” a growly voice snapped.
“Shit.” Dayton winced and glanced down. He smiled, trying to look apologetic. “Hey, Dad.”
“Don’t ‘Hey, Dad’ me. Get down right now. I’ll hold the ladder.”
Dayton sighed and glanced at me. “I guess you get to see how he’d react after all.” With that, Dayton went first, getting on the ladder. He helped keep me balanced as I shimmied back to the trunk of the tree and down to where I could reach the ladder.
It took a little bit to get back down. I took my time, aware of how high I was. By the time I got there, Bryce was there too, grinning.
“Have fun?” he asked.
I nodded.
“What made the two of you think it was a good idea to climb up a tree?” Dayton’s dad focused on me. “Especially you, Maddie. Do you even know how to climb a tree? What if you fell? Did you think about Lawson and Lee?”
He went off on me, his face a little red with his anger. I wanted to feel bad, maybe even scared, but he was yelling at me.
Because he was scared for me.
Worried.
I grinned.
That had his tirade stopping, his expression turning suspicious. “What’s that look?” His eyes narrowed.
“Thank you,” I said.
“For what?” My response only confused him more.
“Being worried about me. I’m sorry I scared you. I’ll be more aware of my situation from now on.”
That took out the rest of his steam. “Oh. Okay. As long as you understand.”
“I do. I understand.”
Dayton laughed. “Oh, you’re good, Maddie.”
His dad’s eyes narrowed again as his attention turned to Dayton. Dayton swore under his breath, realizing his mistake.
“You. You can help me. If you want to cause trouble, then you might as well be more productive while doing it. You’re with me. Maddie, you can go with Bryce.”
He stalked to the golf cart and took off the moment Dayton got in with him.
“Well…” Bryce stared after the two of them. “That was interesting.”
“Yeah.”
Bryce chuckled. “Come on. I need to pick some pumpkins.”
“Oh, that sounds fun!”
He grinned, his dimples teasing me. “I thought you’d like it.”
Chapter Thirteen
The pumpkins had all been gathered into a field. Kids were already picking through them. Lawson and Lee were there too with Lina. They waved at me but were having too much fun with her to come over. I only felt a little lonely.
They had glued themselves to Lina’s side. Maybe it was the mother thing? She oozed motherliness all over the place. If someone looked at her, they had no doubt she was a mother, and they could tell she was proud of it too. She wore it like a shield, claiming dominion over her family.
She had reason to be proud.
Me? I was a fraud. I didn’t know anything about being a mother. I didn’t have the experience. I was only a bad representation of the real deal.
“Where are your thoughts?” Bryce asked.
“Nowhere. So what are we doing?” I changed the subject before he could try to use his psychiatry tactics to get me to talk. He wouldn’t have to try very hard, but I wasn’t in the mood to go down that road.
Today was going to be a fun day. There was no room for negativity.
“We’re culling the patch, so to speak,” he said with a grin. “We’re looking for the bad pumpkins and loading them up.” He pointed to a crate nearby. “There’s a trebuchet, and for a small fee, guests get to launch the pumpkins into a field to watch them smash open.”
“Oh, that sounds violent. I’m in.”
“It’s really cool. We even give a prize to the person who launches it the farthest.”
Rubbing my hands, I walked around the pumpkins, eyeing them. “Only the rotten ones?”
He nodded. “For now. Only the rotten ones.”
“Got it.”
Looking thr
ough pumpkins was more fun than I thought it would be. It was exciting to see how weird pumpkins grew. I found one where two of them were attached. Siamese twins!
“Hey, Maddie, look.” Bryce held up a pumpkin with black marks all over the side. It created a hilarious face. There was a dent in the corner of the pumpkin and Bryce had used a Sharpie to turn it into a wound. The face was zombie-ish and cartoon-ish at the same time.
I laughed. Bryce held up the Sharpie to me.
“Want one?”
I nodded furiously, and he passed an extra to me.
I found a pumpkin and tried to draw an Angry Bird character on it. I wasn’t a good drawer, not like Bryce, but I got the job done.
By the time we were done, I had a whole fleet of Angry Bird pumpkins ready to fly.
Bryce had more zombies, some troll faces, and a bunch of scared expressions, all done in cartoon fashion.
“Do you like drawing?” I asked as I looked over our bounty. The crate was filled with scared looking pumpkins not ready to meet their demise.
“I think if I didn’t take the direction I did, I would have gone into the arts. I loved drawing comic styles growing up. My room was full of comic books and drawing guides.”
“You must have been easy to shop for during the holidays,” I said.
Bryce chuckled. “I definitely was. Everyone knew to just buy me sketch pads and colored pencils.”
I poked at a pumpkin with an emoji face on it. “So how did you become a psychiatrist then?”
“Helping people has always been my priority. Knowing the kind of trauma a person can go through pushed me in this direction. I became desperate to help people who didn’t have a brother like I did.”
I swallowed and focused really hard on a baby pumpkin. “If you don’t mind me asking… if it’s okay…” I cleared my throat, not sure if this was something I was allowed to ask. He mentioned it before, how his brother helped him through something bad. Was it okay to ask?
“What?” Bryce asked in a soft voice. He reached over, resting his hand on my upper arm.
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